VISIR Upgrade Science Verification

Published: 20 Jan 2016

A call for Science Verification (SV) of the upgraded VISIR was issued on 16 November 2015 (announcement) with a proposal deadline of 15 December 2015. The following modes were offered: Sparse Aperture Masking (SAM), coronography and burst readout mode. A total of 35 SV proposals, requesting in total about 62 hours, were received, with proposed observations covering a range of scientific topics.

Dominant topics of the proposed SV observations are discs around bright stars and the characterisation of warm dust disc emission. Other topics include Solar System objects and extragalactic sources. A further commissioning run for these new VISIR modes is taking place at the end of January 2016 and the SV observations will be contingent on successful commissioning.

Applicants will be informed in the week of 25 January 2016 about the outcome of the selection. The observations need to be prepared in the regular Phase 2 process with a deadline around 12 February; the observations are planned between 23 and 27 February 2016. Further information is available on the VISIR Upgrade page, which will be updated with new information as it becomes available.